Russia has been re-emerging as a major political and economic power during the last decade. The leadership of Russia claims that the objectives of transition from the former one-party socialist system to a plural multiparty democratic system and centralised planning to market economy are largely achieved. Russia is politically stable and has demonstrated how new political institutions, multiparty system are functioning under three presidents. In the initial years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Russian economy passed through different phases such as crisis, boom and recovery. Russia has largely succeeded in managing its political and economic relations with “Near Abroad” which have witnessed considerable complexities over the last two decades. Russia has demonstrated that its bilateral ties with India in the political and defence sectors have been consistently cordial and close. However, trade and economic relations need to be strengthened. Notwithstanding its major achievements, Russia has been facing several problems, both in its domestic front and in its foreign relations. Some of the major problems on the domestic front are: over centralisation of power, nexus between state authorities, oligarchs and the bureaucracy, growing menace of corruption, surging political reactions by political parties and some former powerful leaders on various political issues, growing social discontent, issues between different ethnic groups, widening economic disparities among various sections of society and regions. On the external front, Russia has conflicts of interest with some former Soviet republics such as Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and the Baltic states. Russia’s relations with the US and NATO have been highly critical on political and security related issues. There is a need for an objective and critical evaluation of how Russia has managed its domestic and foreign affairs after the collapse of the Soviet Union. What were the successes and failures of Russia in its policies and performance with regard to the social, political and economic developments in the country? This book is as attempt to assess those developments.

This book examines the evolution, contexts and politics of the structures and institutions that shape contemporary Russia. It analyses the Soviet dissolution, revealing the combination of structural and agency factors. It traces the re-emergence of Russia from a unique perspective that is neither Western nor Eurasian, but specifically Indian, located in the global South. The book looks at key theoretical concepts and practices like democratic centralism that produced an overly centralised and rigid hierarchy within the Communist Party. This book assesses the continuities and changes with the Soviet past and the way the Russian regimes of the past two decades have reinvented and reshaped them. This book provides a multifaceted interpretation of contemporary Russia for general readers and specialists.

This volume offers a comprehensive evaluation of the concept of global order, with a particular emphasis on the role of regional organisations within global governance institutions such as the United Nations. Building from a solid theoretical base it draws upon the expertise of numerous leading international scholars offering a broad array of timely and relevant case studies. These all take into consideration the historical setting, before analysing the contemporary situation and offering suggestions for potential realignments and readjustments that may be witnessed in the future. The volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach when addressing some of the most pressing issues of global governance which our global community must tackle. This presents the readers an opportunity to understand related topics such as political economy, international law, institutions of global governance, in conjunction with the academic field of International Relations (IR). It further helps students and interested readers understand the theoretical and practical foundations to the changing nature of global affairs.

Since 1991, post-Soviet political elites in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus have been engaged in nation- as well as state-building. They have tried to strengthen territorial sovereignty and national security, re-shape collective identities and re-narrate national histories. Former Soviet republics have become new neighbours, partners, and competitors searching for geopolitical identity in the new "Eastern Europe", i.e. the countries left outside the enlarged EU. Old paradigms such as "Eurasia" or "East Slavic civilisation" have been re-invented and politically instrumentalized in the international relations and domestic politics of these countries. At the same time, these old concepts and myths have been contested and challenged by pro-Western elites. Borderlands into Bordered Lands examines the construction of post-Soviet borders and their political, social, and cultural implications. It focuses on the exemplary case of the Ukrainian-Russian border, approaching it as a social construct and a discursive phenomenon. Zhurzhenko shows how the symbolic meanings of and narratives on this border contribute to national identity formation and shape the images of the neighbouring countries as "the Other" thereby shedding new light on the role of border disputes between Ukraine and Russia in bilateral relations, in EU neighbourhood politics and in domestic political conflicts. Zhurzhenko also addresses 'border making' on the regional level, focusing on the cross-border cooperation between Kharkiv and Belgorod and on the dilemmas of a Euroregion 'in absence of Europe': Finally, she reflects the everyday experiences of the residents of near-border villages and shows how national and local identities are performed at, and transformed by, the new border. Borderlands into Bordered Lands was honored by the American Association for Ukrainian Studies as best book 2009/2010 in the field of Ukrainian history, politics, language, literature and culture. For more information, view: www.ukrainianstudies.org.

The process of food production and distribution has grown into a global corporate system in recent years. This has caused significant impacts on sustainability on an international scale, particularly for developing nations. Establishing Food Security and Alternatives to International Trade in Emerging Economies is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on agricultural trade relations and trade liberalization in the context of developing countries. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as crop productivity, rural development, and value-added agriculture, this book is ideally designed for academics, researchers, graduate students, and practitioners interested in the current state of global food markets.

This yearbook is the fourth in the series with the title Globalistics and Globalization Studies. The subtitle of the present volume is Global History & Big History. The point is that today our global world really demands global knowledge. Thus, there are a few actively developing multidisciplinary approaches and integral disciplines among which one can name Global Studies, Global History and Big History. They all provide a connection between the past, present, and future. Big History with its vast and extremely heterogeneous field of research encompasses all the forms of existence and all timescales and brings together constantly updated information from the scientific disciplines and the humanities. Global History is transnational or world history which examines history from a global perspective, making a wide use of comparative history and of the history of multiple cultures and nations. Global Studies express the view of systemic and epistemological unity of global processes. Thus, one may argue that Global Studies and Globalistics can well be combined with Global History and Big History and such a multi-disciplinary approach can open wide horizons for the modern university education as it helps to form a global view of various processes.

Planning for Community A comprehensive exploration of community planning that integrates today’s social and economic issues with policy and governance considerations In Planning for Community, distinguished regional and local planner Phil Heywood delivers an insightful examination of the accelerating impacts of social, environmental, and economic changes on community life and organization. He explores the ways in which these changes can be anticipated, planned for, and managed as he reviews and evaluates the nature and challenges of place and interaction faced by traditional and emerging local communities. The book includes discussions of the values, aims, and methods of community planning and the key operations in each of the fields of housing, work, transport, health, and environment. It should also inspire and assist readers to become more involved and influential in the lives of their local and wider communities. Readers will also find: A thorough introduction to methods of inclusion and empowerment enabling effective community management Comprehensive explorations of the ways the values of prosperity, liberty, social justice, and sustainability link to practical community problem-solving Practical discussions of the values, methods, activities, design, and governance shaping community planning Comprehensive, well-grounded, and effective treatments of policy development and practice Planning for Community is an excellent resource for professionals, activists, academics, and students seeking a comprehensive and readable guide to community planning.

The present yearbook (which is the fourth in the series) is subtitled Trends & Cycles. It is devoted to cyclical and trend dynamics in society and nature; special attention is paid to economic and demographic aspects, in particular to the mathematical modeling of the Malthusian and post-Malthusian traps' dynamics. An increasingly important role is played by new directions in historical research that study long-term dynamic processes and quantitative changes. This kind of history can hardly develop without the application of mathematical methods. There is a tendency to study history as a system of various processes, within which one can detect waves and cycles of different lengths – from a few years to several centuries, or even millennia. The contributions to this yearbook present a qualitative and quantitative analysis of global historical, political, economic and demographic processes, as well as their mathematical models. This issue of the yearbook consists of three main sections: (I) Long-Term Trends in Nature and Society; (II) Cyclical Processes in Pre-industrial Societies; (III) Contemporary History and Processes. We hope that this issue of the yearbook will be interesting and useful both for historians and mathematicians, as well as for all those dealing with various social and natural sciences.